Désirée (1954)

Marlon Brando: Napoleon Bonaparte

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Quotes 

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I want my family to be well established. Joseph, particularly. The rest must wait until the victorious culmination of my campaign in Italy.

  Desiree Clary : And you think you can do with people precisely what you want? That life is as you say it is?

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Have you ever heard of a thing called destiny, Désirée?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : She leaves here with 700 dresses, 250 hats, 3 million francs a year. Has she been crying?

  Desiree Clary : Yes.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Well. She'll cry for several days, and have a facial massage, and go out and order 10 new gowns.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Are you mad? Do you realize that I'm the best general in France? Do you seriously believe that I would sell ribbons in a silk shop?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : And you do not believe in destiny?

  Desiree Clary : No one knows what's ahead.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Strange. Most people say that. I know what's ahead. I'm one of the men who make history.

• Talleyrand : The pursuit of glory creates only a great hero. Contempt of it creates a great man.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Perhaps the pursuit of an extraordinary woman can create both.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Life is never simple. I agree. Being in love helps to make it less complicated.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Marie Louise of Austria. Politically she is very desirable. And there is a certain look of fertility about her.

• Etienne Clary : Desiree does not drink wine yet.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Why not? Wine is very healthful, very strengthening. Please.

  Mme. Clary - Désirée's Mother : Young girls do not need strengthening.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : If you will permit me one slight contradiction, madame, they often do.

• Desiree Clary : They play the Marseillaise every night in the park. It's always the last number.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Today that song is played throughout France. Tomorrow it will be played throughout Europe.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Tell me, how is that fine fellow, your brother?

  Desiree Clary : He's been living here for some time. There is now a Paris branch of Clary & Son.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Oh yes, Clary & Son. I remember you wanted me to go to work for him. Selling ribbons, I believe.

  Desiree Clary : Yes, Your Majesty.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Well, we are quite different people now, aren't we. Or are we the same?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I will call upon you, should the frontiers of France need defending.

  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : That will not become necessary, since France no longer has any frontiers.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I marry and divorce for France.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : It is our sacred duty to instill into all the European peoples our great idea of liberty, equality, and fraternity. And if necessary, with the help of cannon.

• Desiree Clary : Her Majesty sent for me.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Oh. For consolation, I suppose. How very inventive of her to choose you. I always envied Josephine her sense of theater.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Tell me, Bernadotte. Did you enjoy your triumph? How did you feel?

  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : In despair.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : In despair. Well, that at least is becoming to the most illustrious traitor France has ever known.

  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : History will determine which of us was the traitor. But if it affords you any satisfaction, you may know that when I leave your sight, I leave France. I will never be back.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : There is the difference. I will be back.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : The church bells will ring with our victories. Before next New Year's Eve I will sleep in Moscow.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Ladies and gentlemen, answer me. Has the nation ever had such a lovely hostage? You laugh. This matter I was working on earlier tonight is an order to Marshal Davout. It instructs him to march across Sweden to cover the left flank of our approach to Russia. Technically that puts us at war with Sweden, and Her Royal Highness is my hostage. But I offer her my protection.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I heard that Your Royal Highness returned to France some time ago. May I ask what caused you to leave your own country?

  Desiree Clary : The cold, sire.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : So, the cold. Members of visiting royal houses usually request an audience when they visit my capital. Court courtesy.

  Desiree Clary : I did not think Your Majesty overly concerned himself with matters of courtesy.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : You err, madame. Since you are no longer a citizen, you remain in France because of my courtesy.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : You would do well to take me seriously.

  Desiree Clary : You forget. I was the first person who ever took you seriously.

• Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : I should of course always serve the interests of Sweden.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : And the interests of France?

  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : I should serve the interests of my former country, whenever they do not conflict with the interests of Sweden.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Can it possibly be that you have forgotten what your former country meant to you? Can it be that you have forgotten the battlefields on which you fought, and the armies which you led? Is it possible that you have forgotten the ideals of your youth?

  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : I remember the ideals of my youth, sire. There are times when I feel they have been betrayed.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Your deployment against me at Leipzig was brilliant. The tactics were genius.

  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte : That is true. I learned them from you.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I wonder what my destiny would have been, had I married you.

  Desiree Clary : The same, I think.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : Perhaps. But the history of empires often depends on such trifles.

  Desiree Clary : So does the history of people.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Do you remember when we first met?

  Desiree Clary : That was the night you told me you knew your destiny.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : That was the first night I kissed you.

  Desiree Clary : You were thinking about my dowry, General.

  Napoleon Bonaparte : No, not entirely. Truly not entirely.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I made war in order to secure peace. Not for a year, but for a dozen centuries. I dreamed of a United States of Europe. Frenchmen, Italians, Germans, Poles, Russians, and all the others. One law, one coinage, one people. Was that so rash a dream?

  Desiree Clary : No. Only the way you dreamed it.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : I can still mobilize 100,000.

  Desiree Clary : And how many of them will die? How many more men will lie in their graves because of you? How many more French mothers will hate you? How many more children will grow up cursing your name because they have no fathers?

  Napoleon Bonaparte : I have had to shed blood, but only where it was indicated.

  Desiree Clary : What indicates it to you now? Your destiny?

• Napoleon Bonaparte : It is customary to hand over one's sword to the officer taking one prisoner. Bernadotte will explain it to you. At this moment I surrender to the Allies. Please don't hold it like an umbrella.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : You always enjoyed playing the role of the courageous lady.

  Desiree Clary : I am not at all courageous. Just the opposite. But when there's a great deal at stake, I can make the effort.

• Napoleon Bonaparte : Desiree, I must make you understand. Without Josephine I could not have achieved command in Italy. As a result of that, deeds await me, of which the present generation cannot even dream. These chuckleheads who call me bloodthirsty, mad, ambitious. I'm none of these. I am the French Revolution, and I shall know how to protect it. The crown of France is in disrepute. It lies in the gutter. It needs only to be picked up with the point of a sword. Do you understand that? Do you?